


That Night

by PlotQueen



Category: Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter - Laurell K. Hamilton
Genre: F/M, Offscreen character death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-01-01
Updated: 2004-01-01
Packaged: 2017-11-15 19:58:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/531130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PlotQueen/pseuds/PlotQueen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A dream, a visit, and maybe something else...</p>
            </blockquote>





	That Night

"Edward," I whispered. I wanted to tell him that I needed his strength, needed to feel his arms around me, and as I watched his face my breath caught in my throat. I'd never seen that kind of desire in a man's eyes before. Not for me. 

What I saw in Edward's eyes burned into my soul. I held my breath, unwilling to break the spell as my eyes locked with his. Slowly, his eyes fixed on mine, and he drew me into his arms. 

"Just one kiss, Anita," he murmured, his lips hovering over mine. 

"One kiss," I agreed, my eyes fluttering closed. 

His mouth brushed over hers with exquisite tenderness, lingering for a moment as if he couldn't bear to let me go. I could feel his arms trembling as he held me away from him and raised his head. 

A hollow, empty place inside me cried out in protest, and I opened my eyes. "That wasn't enough," I whispered, and his hands tightened on my shoulders as he groaned. 

"Don't say that, Anita. Tell me to let you go." 

Wordlessly I shook my head. "I can't," I breathed, speaking so softly that I wasn't sure if he heard me. "Hold me." 

This time his kiss was infinitely gentle. My lips still ached from his first kiss, and he soothed them with his tongue, nibbling and caressing until I opened my mouth for him. I heard him groan as he tasted me, stroking me until I throbbed deep inside my belly. 

His hands shifted and eased on me back as he feathered his way down my spine his fingers lingering as if they memorized every sweep of muscle and bone. When he reached my waist, he hesitated, then slowly bunched my shirt in his hand. I shivered as the cool morning air breathed over my skin, then he rested his warm hand on my stomach and I was flooded with heat. 

My muscles jumped every time he moved his fingers. As he slid a hand along my ribs, I wrapped my arms more tightly around him to hide my trembling. 

When he cupped my breast in his palm, I gasped as pleasure shot through me. Slowly he touched my nipples with the pads of his thumbs, and I went rigid as sensation threatened to overwhelm me. He hesitated, and I held my breath until he slipped his hand underneath my bra and touched me again. 

Need throbbed deep inside me with an almost unbearable strength. I had to touch him, to feel his skin against my hands. Letting go of his shirt, I tried to force the buttons through the tiny holes on the front, but my hands shook too hard. With a muttered curse Edward let me go and roughly pulled his shirt over his head. His smooth skin gleamed in the dim light, his sleek muscles rippling as he reached for me again. 

I laid my hands against his chest, reveling in the feel of his hot skin. As I moved my hands his skin quivered in response. I touched him again and felt his muscles bunch and tense. 

His flat male nipples were hard and beaded, dusky against his pale skin. I reached out and touched one with a tentative finger, watching as it tightened even more. When I touched him again, he pulled me closer and covered my mouth with his. 

This time I tasted his need, his passion. Easing down onto the bed, Edward pulled me down on top of him and wrapped his arms around me as if he couldn't bear to let me go. His arousal burned into me, even through the clothing that he wore. 

As he tasted my neck, biting gently then smoothing with his tongue, his hands slowly unbuttoned my shirt. When the last button fell open, I felt the cool morning air flutter against my overheated skin. In one smooth motion he swept the shirt from my shoulders, and I lay on top of him with nothing covering me but my sheer, lacy bra. 

For a moment, as he stared at me and panic swept over me. Kisses were one thing, but now I was on the brink of something else entirely. Control was slipping out of my hands, and I had an almost unstoppable urge to cover my scars. 

Then Edward reached out and unfastened my bra. As it fell open, I felt his response to me, and when he looked up at me the wonder in his eyes made my heart lurch in my chest. 

“You’re so beautiful."

 

I woke with a start. No real reason, more of a feeling of unease. I learned a long time ago to trust my instincts so I grabbed the Browning from the holster on the headboard and slipped on my robe, a little silky black thing Jean-Claude had picked out when we were still dating. 

I padded to the doorway and slid it open, very quietly. There was nothing in the hall so I carefully slipped down it, closing my door behind me. No light, my night vision is very good. The living room was empty, so was the kitchen, I checked the other bedrooms on my way back to mine. All clear, just a false alarm. Or was it? 

My bedroom door was open a crack. The gun came up, my finger a soft but firm pressure on the trigger. I nudged the door open with my foot and peered through the open doorway. There was nothing. I kneeled and peeked around it to either side. Still nothing. 

One place left, the bathroom. I carefully walked to it, gun still at the ready, and just as I was about to open the door it opened. My finger squeezed the trigger and I had just enough time to raise the gun before the shot took the intruder through the heart. The bullet went high to the right, over his head, and into the wall. 

I lowered the gun. "Dammit, Edward, can't you ever knock?" My voice was hard and angry. I'd nearly killed him because he couldn't knock at the front door and wait for me to let him in. 

"Anita," he said softly. His voice was a little strained, I think, but I ignored it. 

I turned away from him and went back to my bed, holstering the Browning in its special holster. "You came all the way from Santa Fe to use my bathroom, Edward? I don't think so. Why are you here?" I turned back to him, my eyes blazing. "What, is there another contract on my head? Or did you want to give me another toy? Or did you come to hunt me?" 

I knew I was angry, too angry with him for something as small as this. He would have called ahead if he was hunting me, and the other reasons were trivial. But I couldn't help myself. My trip to Santa Fe had been very interesting for me, and even though it had been nearly a year since I'd been there, since I'd seen Edward, I couldn't avoid what I'd learned since then. 

I'd come home ready to patch things up with the boys, but I hadn't. Not that we were a dysfunctional triumvirate, we'd worked around it, but as much as they loved me and I loved them, I couldn't be with either of them. They weren't what I wanted anymore. 

Oh hell, I wasn't sure what I wanted. All I knew was that dreaming about Edward was not my cup of coffee. So I was angry with him because I was attracted to him. Because I, god help me, had feelings for the one man in the world that thought I was safe from wanting. 

Edward just looked at me. That's when I noticed that his usually pale face was spotted with blood. The way he was standing there I didn't think it was someone else's. At least not all of it. I gave him a quick once over but I didn't see anything wrong with him. Except he was standing a little stiffly. Like someone who was afraid to move because it hurt less to stand still. 

"Edward?" I said softly. I could hear the fine edge of fear in my voice, something that would normally annoy me, but right now I didn't care. I took a step forward, all that was needed to cover the distance between us, and that's when I saw it. Two small holes on the side of his neck. He'd been bitten by a vampire. Shit. 

He looked at me and I saw the blankness in his eyes. It was his customary face when he didn't want to be read. Which was most of the time. All the time. Hell, I could never read him. Neither could anyone else I knew of. I took the face to mean that he wasn't happy about coming to me for help, which was what I knew he wanted. Cleaning a vamp bite by yourself is next to impossible. It's much easier when you have someone else to pour acid on the bite. 

Which was what I did. Three bottles of holy water and just beginning on the fourth was when he finally told me to stop. He was ready for the cross test. I pulled the silver cross off from around my neck and held it carefully over his neck. I didn't want to do this, if I hadn't cleansed the bite enough the cross would burn him like he was a vampire. But he didn't give me a choice. 

He grabbed my hand and pulled it down so that the cool metal of the cross was pressed against his skin. So were my fingers. The skin was soft and warm beneath them and I felt things low in my stomach coil tightly. I shook my head and pulled back. He'd passed the test, no burn, just some holes, and I was so ready for him to go. If he stayed then things might not be so good. 

I dropped the cross onto the sink and walked out of the bathroom, closing the door behind me. The bed, that was a safe place to go. So I got into it and curled up under the covers with Sigmund, my stuffed penguin. I was still huddled under the covers when I heard the door open and I watched Edward walk out. My heart jumped and I closed my eyes tightly. It would be safer for me not to look, not to watch. 

I did jump when I felt him sit down on my bed. But nothing happened. I pulled the covers back from my head and opened my eyes and Edward was just sitting there, my cross in his hand. He was looking at it, and at the wall. Everywhere except me. He really didn't want to see me. And I had no clue why. 

"Edward," I said softly but firmly. He turned his eyes on me and they were cold and blue as winter skies. They were the eyes I'd been dreaming about for months, the eyes I'd wanted to see since I'd left Santa Fe. He didn't say anything. 

"Why did you come here?" My voice was steady. Brownie point for me. 

He didn't answer. Instead he held my cross in his hands, staring. I looked at him carefully. Something was not right with Edward. 

"I came to check up on you, make sure you were okay." His voice was neutral, his face empty. 

"Then how'd you get vampire bit, Edward?" It sounded harsh, I was so tired my voice showed it. 

He smiled at me and said, "I had a job to do." 

"How much did you get paid this time?" 

"Nothing." 

"You did a job for free?" I was skeptical. Edward, the ultimate assassin, was killing people for free? That was too weird for me. "You killed a vampire for nothing?" 

"The vampire wasn't the target." 

This was going nowhere fast. "So you killed someone else for nothing, the vampire was a bonus." 

He almost laughed and then he looked at me, his eyes dark in the moonless room. "Something like that," he said, and this time I didn't ignore the tension in his voice. It was too full of it to even try. 

"Edward…" I said and then stopped. I quickly reached out along the marks and felt for Jean-Claude, thinking that Edward had finally done the unthinkable. 

But no, Jean-Claude was there, alive. I could feel a deep sadness in him and a quick burst of relief as he felt me, but then he shut me out. 

Edward just watched me. I had the feeling he knew what I'd done. 

"It was you," he said softly. 

"Me?" It took me a full minute to understand what he meant, and then I finally got it. "I was the target? The hit?" 

He nodded. And then he held my cross out to me. Without thinking I took it, and his hand closed on mine. My heart sped. 

"I killed the vampire who hired me." 

I was almost afraid to ask. Almost afraid that Edward had caused the sadness Jean-Claude had felt. But I had to know. 

My own voice was tight as I did. "Who hired you?" 

He let go of my hand and looked down. "I have to tell you something first, Anita. I took him out with Jean-Claude's permission. Hell, I even had his blessing." 

It was someone I knew. And from the way Jean-Claude had shut me out, someone I had cared about. Someone I was close to. 

I sat up and swung my legs over the side of the bed, so that Edward and I were sitting next to each other, almost touching. I was not going to hear this lying down. And if I'd had more presence of mind, I would have been embarrassed at the teensy weensy little nightie I wore. 

Sure, I could hang out with Edward in an oversized shirt and nothing else, but not dressed like this. Except I didn't care. I was too scared at what he might tell me. 

And tell me he did. 

"I got the request on my answering service, as usual. But you know I couldn't kill you like that." I did, he hadn't done it last time someone had placed a hit on me. "I found out who was, like I normally do…" He paused, like he wasn't sure what to say. "Anita, it was Asher." 

My breath caught in my throat, I couldn't believe it. Asher? How… that was obvious. But why? And I reached for Jean-Claude again. 

He was waiting for me, as if he had only wanted Edward to be the one to tell me. And now I could feel the depth of his sorrow that his closest friend for centuries would do this, would want his human servant dead. 

And then I knew what had happened. Without words I knew it all. 

Asher had been jealous, had hated me for not allowing Jean-Claude to be with him anymore. Even though that hadn't really been my doing—it was Jean-Claude's decision. And he decided to kill me. 

Not himself, Jean-Claude would know and never forgive him. Perhaps even kill him. He decided to do it in a way he believed no one would find out his duplicity. Hire an assassin. 

And not just any assassin.

Death. 

But he hadn't known how deeply my friendship with Edward ran. Or perhaps only the nature of it. Because Edward would never just kill me. He had to hunt me, had to answer the question of which of us was better. 

And Edward had gone to Jean-Claude with what he'd learned. And Jean-Claude couldn't even begin to guess why Edward hadn't taken the hit. I wasn't going to tell him, it was far simpler to let it stand that Death would never assassinate the Executioner. 

When Asher had been confronted… Jean-Claude had already told Edward to do as he would, knowing that Asher would not live the night. Edward had simply waited until Jean-Claude had asked Asher his questions before killing him. 

Because Jean-Claude needed to know why Asher had done it. And he'd found out. Even knowing that Jean-Claude might die, Asher still denied it. He believed that Jean-Claude and Richard were strong enough to hold against my death. 

Jean-Claude did not believe so. In fact, he let me see that he believed he would die if I did. Richard, too. He didn't think that the two of them, alone or together, were strong enough to lose me. 

But he believed that I would survive them both if they died. 

When it was over, Asher was dead, Jean-Claude was disheartened, and Asher had managed to sink his teeth into Edward, who hadn't hung around but left to tell me what had happened. I think as a favor to Jean-Claude. Except Edward didn't strike me as willing to do any vampire favors. 

Maybe it was because of me. 

Yes, that was it. He believed that I would want him dead for what he'd done. I didn't, but my heart hurt. 

I didn't even realize that I was crying until Edward handed me a tissue. I took it and tried to dry my eyes, but they wouldn't. For some reason it hurt to even think that someone I had known and trusted so much would do that. 

Edward stood and bent down to press a kiss to my forehead. Except I'd lifted my face to watch him stand. 

His lips met mine, and for a moment neither of us moved. 

Then we did. I leaned a little closer, kissing him, and his eyes were wide and startled as he looked at mine. He pulled back. 

"Anita, I…" 

I stood and started to step towards him. Then he turned and disappeared through my door. I heard a door downstairs open and then close. 

And I just sat there.


End file.
